top six stories of the last two weeks

Hijo del Santo announced his temporary and possibly permanent retirement due to injury. He will undergo neck fusion surgery in January. Santo said he believed he’d be back, but may not return in 2014. It was said the TxT promotion, mostly built around Santo, will go on without him. They ran a previously scheduled show on 11/30, with recent arrival from CMLL Horuz losing his mask to his uncle Angel Blanco Jr.

Volador Jr., who’s been both one of CMLL’s top rudos and one of their most popular luchdors for the last few years, is now a tecnico. The turn came out of nowhere and proceeded amazingly quick for a CMLL story. Volador is now friends with Mistico II (which hasn’t really been explained) and feuded with his former friends the Invasors (a jealousy issue.) Just before the turn started, Volador took the NWA Welterweight championship from Mascara Dorada. That seems to be part of the plan here, but that plan is not clear.

Mistico I was replaced as Sin Cara is coming back to Mexico, soon rather than latter. (This will be a bigger item when he shows up, almost certainly in AAA.)

AAA announced their Guerra de Titanes card, their last major show of the year. It’s a lot like Heroes Inmortales, where the main TV angle (is Perro Aguayo a tecnico?) gets continued on the show but not resolved, and the undercard matches have either little build (Demon/Electroshock) or none. The actual final match on the show may end up being the exoticos/women cage match, so they don’t have to set up and take down a cage. That match feels the most meaningful, but it also includes people who almost never on TV and has been mostly set up on their lesser TV show. Not having a drawing match doesn’t really matter as far as selling tickets, because the local state governemnt bought the show and is giving away all the tickets for free.

At least AAA has matches. CMLL has started towards matches which might be a bigger deal than what AAA’s offering (Rush/Tonga, Rush/Casas) then stopped the feud for no apparent reason. It looks like their year end show might only be the Leyenda de Plata tournament and possibly a Rey Escorpion/Maximo hair match. The latter may turn out to be good but doesn’t feel as hot as the set up Rey Escorpion/Brazo de Plata feud.

CMLL held it’s annual bodybuilding contest. Mini Astral was the overall winner. The strangest part of this year’s competition was 7-time champion Dark Angel saying she was not participating this year, then participating anyway, only to lose to Dalys (who had finished second the last four years.)

Daga & Psicosis turned on Perro Aguayo Jr. and left the Perros del Mal. Perro never actually turned tecnico, but had been teaming with the tecnicos and his rudo partners had enough. The post match run-ins set up a weird alliance of Perro Jr., Cibernetico, Konnan and Zorro and the tease of Perro having to pick between Cibrenetico and Konnan.

CMLL pulled their luchadors from wrestling on a AAA/CMLL/indy tribute to show for El Brazo. All the luchadors still appeared and signed autographs for the fans. CMLL policy is to never let their luchadors work on a show with AAA luchadors, but the Brazos apparently thought they had an exception for this show.

Psicosis II changed his name to Psyco Ripper and changed his look to less resemble Psicosis. He explained it was due to US TV appearances, a story which may or may be true. He may have already changed his name again.

AAA’s TV did not air on Televisa in Mexico one Saturady but Televisa made up for it by giving them a two hour slot the next week. A weird TV issue worked out all fine for a lucha libre company, which may have been a first.

rising star Titan defeated Averno for the Mexican National Welterweight championship in another strong match between them. Titan has become one of the more popular tecnicos in the promotion, and also one of the best booked luchadors.

Rey Cometa will be out six weeks due to a wrist injury, but should be back in time for the FantasticaMania shows.

AAA/IWRG luchador Eterno will be out three months after a foot injury.

On IWRG’s Caravana de Campeones show, all the championships kept their belts. The Traumas went on to lose the tag team titles to Alan Extreme & Veneno a few days later.

CMLL announced their 12/01 show for Arena Coliseo, then announced Arena Coliseo was closed until 01/19. (They held the show in Arena Mexico instead.)

Mobil Machin & Power Diesel defeated Corrosion & Desgaste in the main event of a sponsored show in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara. That’s not the weird part. The weird part is their are no Mobil gas stations in Mexico. (They manufacture oil instead.)

Mistico I should return to Mexico as Sin Mascara and wrestle under a canvas colored mask with no designs or artwork just a blank canvas. He should only wrestle in mask vs mask matches wearing the guys mask he defeated the following taping and so on until he faces Mistico II to return to his original persona. Just a thought, highly unlikely since the whole CMLL departure thing but that would be a great build up to the Annerversary show next fall.